Academic/Clinical partnership and collaboration in Quality and Safety Education for Nurses education

The Institute of Medicine and the Carnegie Foundation for Health Education have called for significant changes in nursing education to reduce medical errors and improve health outcomes. In response to this call, a small private Catholic university undertook an innovative bachelor of science in nursing curriculum revision based in large part on the competencies described by the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative. Part of the curriculum revision involved an innovative model of clinical education. The model emphasized integration and application of concepts across multiple didactic courses and envisioned the student as an active member of the health care team. Instead of exposing students to numerous clinical placements, the goal was to increase student exposure to one site to appreciate system issues and effectively work with a stable health care team. Implementation of this model required a strong academic/clinical partnership between Lourdes University and a large integrated regional health care system, ProMedica. Supported by a program grant from the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services Nurse Education Practice, Quality and Retention, the practice-based role of the clinical integration partner (CIP) was developed to implement the new clinical education model. This article describes the academic/clinical partnership and the role of the CIP in implementing a QSEN-based clinical education model.